Lovely Life
by AuthorSwimmerPoet
Summary: Winnie x Jesse. A series of prompts and brief scenes based on LiveJournal 50scenes
1. Moonlight

035. Moonlight.

"Winnie," Jesse whispered quietly.

Her head shot up from the book, she'd been quietly reading. "Jesse," She mouthed in astonishment, staring at his face in the darkened window.

He nodded excitedly and gestured for her to come to him.

Winnie shook her head. "Can't. Husband's home."

Jesse tried to ignore the sickening pit of despair in his stomach. "I'll wait."

Winnie raised an eyebrow. "For what exactly?"

"Your husband to go to sleep."

Even more surprise seemed to accumulate on her face. "But Jesse you're too late. I'm married." She spoke the words so matter-of-factly the tone was just as natural as discussing the weather.

Jesse's whole body seemed to freeze. She didn't want him anymore? He'd thought that she'd wait for him. That she'd drink from the spring for him. Hadn't she promised?

Abruptly his knees gave out. The painful stinging of the physical contact with the ground was all he could feel anymore.

He felt dizzy, his awareness swirled into black.

"Jesse."

Nudge.

"Jesse."

Nudge.

Jesse groaned. His eyes flickered open. Winnie was leaning over him smiling. "Good morning, husband."

Now he realized, he'd been dreaming. Winnie had waited for him, waited and gotten impatient, but now they were together and had in fact just gotten married the night previously.

**Author's Note: Okay, so maybe dream sequences are bit clichéd, but I wanted to play with the original setup of my story. Hopefully for the next one, it'll be a bit longer, and less contrived, and possibly about the aforementioned wedding in the story. If not that segment will come at some point, because as part of this challenge I wanted to do a scene of their first wedding.**

**Otherwise I guess I should mention this is part of the 50 scenes challenge listed on LiveJournal. The prompts are listed online, and so this will eventually be a total of 50 chapters, if I ever manage to update the thing. Also I wouldn't expect any sort of chronology from it, just a series of scenes, probably based on the time in Another Tuck, when they're married and exploring the world, and when the main part of that story begins.**


	2. Writer's Choice Job Hunting

010. Writer's Choice, Job Hunting

"This is such a pain. No matter how many times I go through this it doesn't get easier."

Jesse sighed over his application. "I know."

"It's annoying to me that we even still need jobs. After so many years it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect your family to have a vast stack of savings we could dig into instead of working all the time."

Jesse shook his head, "My parents have always believed in earning enough money to live by. They don't see the point of accumulating endless amounts of stuff as time goes on."

Winnie sighed this time. "Well I say that we find a way to make humungous savings accounts so that one day we don't have to spend so much time working."

"Deal."

**Author's Note: I guess it's kind of short, but not everything I think of can turn into terribly long segments.**


	3. Liar

008. Liar.

Winnie rests her head on Jesse's shoulder.

He squeezes her hand gently.

"Aren't all the kids in their little soccer uniforms adorable?" She queries dreamily, as they watch the children across the park play.

Jesse shifts to look at her face, trying not to disturb her too much. "Are you trying to imply something with that comment? A child of ours would most likely up like Claudia ."

Winnie rolls her eyes, repressing a flutter of disappointment in her belly. "You're just paranoid because of that vampire book. Besides it wouldn't necessarily happen that way. But no, I wasn't trying to imply anything by saying that."

Jesse gazes at her warily.

She lifts her head to meet his gaze in a more normal fashion. "Stop distrusting me."

"But you're so easy to mistrust." Jesse teases finally managing a smile.

"Right 'cause I always lie to you." Winnie retorts.

"You lied about being dead." He points out.

"Only so you'd come back, you great lummox. You promised you were going to. Sixty years was more than enough waiting for me."

Jesse sighs. "I guess that was partially my fault. But I came back once, and you were married, with a child."

Winnie places a hand by against his cheek. She remembers the child, wishes that Jesse wants one too. She loves the poor dead baby even now. Her sweet little foundling. She dreams of having the chance to mother again. "I know, it was my fault too."

They kiss gently, trying to bury their hurt at those memories all over again.

**Author's Note: For those of you who don't know the book they are referencing is Interview With a Vampire by Anne Rice. Claudia is a child vampire, that wishes she were a grown-up. Basically.**

**Also this is one of my first attempts at writing using present tense. What do you think?**


	4. Winter

**As you may guess after reading, the season of the year has rather influenced me :) If you don't celebrate Christmas and getting offended by the mention of it or whatever, don't read this one, I'm not going to apologize for writing about Christmas though, because as a Christian I celebrate Christmas and believe it's about Christ. I don't like people trying to tell me that I shouldn't say "Merry Christmas" just because it might offend someone who doesn't believe in it. I wouldn't be offended by people telling me "Happy Kwanza" (sorry if I spelled it wrong) or saying similiar things about whatever holiday they may celebrate, so why I can't wish you well for the holiday I celebrate? In other words:Merry Christmas.**

41. Winter.

"Our first Christmas together." Winnie whispered a grin on her face. She leaned over to where Jesse was lying in the bed feigning sleep. She could tell he wasn't sleeping because he was fighting to keep a smile from flickering across his face. She kissed his cheek. "I'm going to make you a special breakfast, then let's open presents okay?" She strokes the hair on his forehead, lingering for just a moment, before climbing out of bed.

Jesse walked into the kitchen yawning as she was cracking eggs to fry in their skillet. He leaned against the counter, grinning and watching her prepare breakfast.

"What?" Winnie finally asks after several minutes of this.

"I was just thinking." Jesse answered cryptically.

Winnie laughs. "What were you thinking about?" She attempts to be more direct this time.

"You. Christmas." Jesse's answer still doesn't seem particularly forthcoming.

"Okay, any particular reason why?" Winnie casually keeps her attention on the eggs in the pan instead of looking at him.

"I was wondering what you believe." His smile slipped a bit from his face.

"What?" Winnie questioned, genuinely puzzled by his statement, her attention fleeing from the eggs so she can stare at him.

"About Christmas." Jesse continued. "I was wondering if you think of it as just a holiday to share presents with those you love or if you believed...more about it." He finished almost awkwardly.

"More? You mean like about Christ?" Winnie prodded.

Jesse nodded his cheeks a little red. "Yeah about that."

"Why were you wondering if I believed in Christ?"

"Because we're going to live forever now. I didn't know if that changed how you feel about God."

Winnie smiled gently. "Jesse. I was born Christian and to believe in Christ and God, and maybe it seems strange to you, but even with the spring and being able to live forever with you, I still believe in him. It's kind of hard to explain, but God loves everyone and has a plan for everyone, and if our part is to live forever, then let's live forever."

Jesse returned her smile. "I'm glad I didn't break your beliefs."

"No one can break my beliefs but me." Winnie responded cheerfully. "It's my choice to think I want to, others may sometimes influence it, but I'm the only one who can change it. And I choose to believe in God."

"Merry Christmas." Jesse whispered sounding almost grateful.

"Merry Christmas." Winnie returned the sentiment and hugged her husband.


	5. Twilight

**Author's Note: I really wanted to do something nice with prompt, setting it at twilight, a romantic date or something, but all I could think of were the Twilight books, so this is what came of it instead. I figure it's not an unreasonable opinion for someone like Winnie who was raised in an early era of books to come to. Hope you enjoy. :)**

001. Twilight.

"What book have you been reading?" Jesse walking into the room and seeing Winnie reading on the couch, one thing that hadn't changed about her in all their years was her love of reading. The tv may have been invented, and there might be scads of films to see, video games to play, but Winnie's preference was almost always to find a quiet corner and read.

"Twilight." Winnie responded not looking up from the book.

Jesse winced. He had heard about this book. Girls apparently read it and couldn't stop swooning over the main character because he was so obnoxiously wonderful. He didn't like the idea of Winnie reading this book.

He hesitated, then asked, "So what do you think of it?"

Winnie put the book aside and looked up at her husband. "I don't get what all the fuss is about. It's not a completely terrible book, like the people who hate it say, but I don't know that it's obsession worthy either. It's just a book, the story isn't particularly original and the characters are pretty standard, so overall I don't know why so many girls are freaking out about it."

Jesse felt relieved but tried to keep it hidden. "Are you going to read the whole series then?"

Winnie shrugged. "We'll see how I feel at the end of this one, but I don't know that I have any particular motivation to do so."

"As long as you don't turn into a crazy fangirl."

Winnie laughed. "Honestly Jesse, I come from an earlier era than these girls, I like old books. What they now call classics and the average person distains to read. But that's the sort of book I grew up with."

"That's true." Jesse realized. He hadn't considered that older novels and books would be more appealing to Winnie.

"Which doesn't mean I'll stop reading new books either," Winnie admitted. "But I don't think I'll like any of them as well as the books I grew up with."

Jesse nodded, no longer having anything he could add to the conversation.

Winnie grinned and went back to reading her book.


	6. Apologize

028. Apologize.

_I'm holding on your rope,_

_Got me ten feet off the ground._

_And I'm hearing what you say,_

_But I just can't make a sound._

Winnie stared at the hand Alexandre held out for a moment. She knew what taking it entailed. She also knew that she had no choice but to take it. Taking his hand means marrying him, but Jesse didn't come back, even though she'd drunk from the spring, so what other choice did she have but to the offered hand. To search for some sort of happiness with someone.

_You tell me that you need me,_

"Please, Winnie, marry me." Alexandre's voice is a gentle whisper. "I promise I'll make you happy. I promise you'll make me happy. I'll never need to look at another woman with you at my side."

The words should have been flattering. She was sure any other girl would swoon at them, swoon at the romance Alexandre was offering.

Winnie bit her lip, considering for one final moment, then took his hand.

It almost hurt her to see how pleased this simple action made him. She wished she could have felt the same pleasure at it.

...

_Then you go and cut me down..._

_But wait..._

_You tell me that you're sorry,_

_Didn't think I'd turn around..._

"Winnie you don't love me do you?"

She shook her head, not sure why she was fighting back tears, except for that she knew he did love her.

"Is there someone else, I should step aside for?" Alexandre's tone was bitter.

She shook her head more vigorously. "He's not coming back for me." The words made her ache, but Jesse had never come back. If he came back now...it would be too late. She was already married. She couldn't just throw that away, even if she didn't love her husband.

Alexandre's smile was bitter as he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. "I wish I could have saved you from heartbreak."

_And say..._

_That it's too late apologize._

_It's too late..._

_I said it's too late to apologize._

_It's too late._

Winnie smiled weakly. "At least I know I can feel heartbreak. Some days I wonder if I can feel at all. But then I think of him, and it hurts so much I know I have to be real."

_I'd take another chance,_

_Take a fall, take a shot for you._

_I need you like a heart needs a beat,_

_But it's nothing new._

"Forget about him. I know it hurts, but don't think about him. Try and devote your heart to someone else."

"Who you?" Winnie snapped bitterly.

Alexandre couldn't even produce a bitter smile now. "I wish you could feel that way for me, but it doesn't who. Just find someone else to devote your heart to. It hurts, but in life you need to move past heartbreak if you're ever going to make any sort of progress."

"Maybe I don't want to progress past him." Winnie's word were sharp but in such a low mumble she didn't think Alexandre heard them as he walked away.

...

_I loved you with a fire red,_

_Now it's turning blue..._

Winnie cried into her pillow. Helping about Jesse Alexandre had brought her pain into an even sharper focus than it had been previously. She missed Jesse. She wanted him to come back, just so that she could see him one more time.

_And you say..._

_Sorry, like an angel_

_Heaven let me think was you..._

_But I'm afraid..._

"I'm sorry." Jesse whispered in her dream. "I wanted to come. I wanted to be with you. I heard you were getting married. I couldn't come."

"Jesse!" Winnie cried out.

She sat up suddenly awake, her breath rushing from her in great gasps.

"Winnie?" Her husband's voice was gentle.

"Go back to sleep." She commanded him. She slipped out of the bed, and left the room. She didn't want to dream of Jesse anymore tonight. She went to the parlor and relit the fire. She sat in her rocking chair, and hid from her dreams, by reading through the night.

...

_It's too late to apologize._

_It's too late._

_I said it's too late to apologize._

_It's too late._

Winnie sobbed over Alexandre's grave. She hadn't loved him, not like she'd love Jesse, but she hadn't wished him dead either. He was a companion, and now he and the child they'd been raising together were gone. She had no one. She was alone.

"I'm sorry." She whispered to her husband's grave. "I'm sorry. You deserved someone better than me."

_I'm holding on your rope,_

_Got me ten feet off the ground._

"I should never have taken his hand. I should have rebelled my family's arrangements and never married him. Then he could have found someone worthy of him."

**Author's Note: Having never done a songfic before, I don't know if I've done this right, or if the song matches appropriately the bits of story I was trying to tell through it, but here is my attempt. I hope you enjoy.**


	7. Adoration

026. Adoration.

Winnie quivers in excitement. She has dreamed of this day for many years. She has always known that she would like to be a bride, perhaps the groom wasn't of her picking but at least she could be a bride.

She spares a single thought for Jesse whom would have been her choice if he'd returned. _Why didn't you come back for me? I'm older now._ Before she shakes away the regret. Choices have been made, unfortunately she wasn't his. She needs to move on.

"Winifred," Jesse was the only person, apart from herself, to think of her as Winnie, "are you ready?" Her mother calls.

Winnie looks in the mirror one last time. Her hair hangs in coquettish curls framing her face; the veil seems to float above. Winnie smiles at her reflection. She looks like a bride, not Jesse's bride unfortunately, but a bride nonetheless. She stands up leaving her reflection behind. "I'm coming Mother."

She smiles at the quiet swish of her dress as it brushes against the floor while she walks. The soft rustle of sound is pleasant even if everything it signifies isn't completely appealing to her. _Alexandre is a good man,_ she thinks as she quietly shuts the door behind her. _He doesn't deserve me; he deserves a woman who will love him in return rather than me, pining away for my Jesse Tuck._ Alexandre seems to adore her as well, which makes the situation even more difficult. She wishes he felt as coldly towards her as she does to him; it would make her feel less guilty.

She enters the parlor, where the wedding is to take place, it is more full of both chairs and people than she had previously thought possible. Alexandre stands at the end of the aisle a wide smile on his face.

_He looks so happy..._Winnie thinks regretfully. Briefly she clenches her fists, then slowly she makes her way down the aisle to her soon-to-be husband.

**Author's Note: For the moment this should conclude the semi-sappy, semi-depressing Winnie married to someone other than Jesse phase. I can't promise there won't be any more pieces with her first husband, but for now we should be going back to our regularly scheduled Winnie + Jesse stuff. :)**


	8. Blankets

005. Blankets.

"What are you up to?" Winnie asked leaning over the back of the couch.

"Just playing a video game." Jesse answered a bit distractedly.

"Are you winning?" She tried to keep her tone merely curious. It's frustrating sometimes that this is one of the things he is attracted to as the world progresses. She didn't have much interest video games, but Jesse and pretty much every other male on the planet of an applicable age to when theirs were frozen seemed to love them; the few times she'd tried to talk about it with Jesse it hadn't changed anything.

"Come watch." Jesse suggested, taking a moment to pat the couch next to him. "Then you'll know."

Winnie rolled her eyes, as if she understood the game well enough to know. Despite this she grabbed a blanket to wrap up in; she was feeling a bit chilly, and curled up beside him.

Jesse grinned at her briefly. "If you played with me, I bet we'd win every time."

"That's some nice flattery but I don't really understand video games, and I'm pretty sure you know that." Winnie answered gently.

"You could learn." Jesse points out, his attention already mostly fixed on the game again.

Winnie sighed. Some days she wondered why she wanted him forever, their interests seemed to be in flux so much of the time as the world around them changed. She wrapped the blanket more tightly around herself, trying to suppress the thought. She'd chosen jesse, there was no backing out for her now.

Listening to his fingers mash the buttons on the controller for the game, Winnie fell asleep.


	9. Anger

024. Anger.

"Gah! I hate balancing checkbooks!" Winnie exclaimed in frustration.

Jesse smiled sheepishly. "I'd do it for you, but I'm no better at it than you are."

"I know, if anything you're worse." Winnie snapped in frustration. "It would be so nice if we just didn't have to keep track of money."

"That's a part of life kiddo." Jesse teased in a mock adult tone, draping an arm casually over her shoulder.

Winnie rolled her eyes. "It wouldn't have to be if your parents had a vast mountain of money hidden away somewhere, which seems like it could be entirely possible considering how long you guys have been around."

Jesse simply shrugs. "I can't change the fact that my parents are very frugal people and are content living off of the bare minimum as much as possible."

"Which doesn't mean they couldn't have secret savings." Winnie muttered staring at her checkbook hopelessly. "This is ridiculous. I want someone else to do this for me." She picked the checkbook up ready to chuck it across the room.

Jesse wrapped a fist around her arm, knowing it probably wasn't best for her to be throwing things across the room, even if they were fairly harmless objects.

Winnie sighed. "Why do we have to spend so much money?" She asks grumpily.

"Because we're human and we like having things like food at our disposal."

Winnie sticks her tongue out at Jesse in annoyance.

He grins devilishly back at her.

"I don't want to do this right now." She complains.

"Then don't." Jesse suggests his grin growing wider.

She eyes him suspiciously. "What did you have in mind?"

"Come a little closer and I'll whisper it in your ear." He teases pulling her closing by the arm he still has in his grasp.

Winnie laughs, her frustration broken. At least for the moment.


	10. Hold

015. Hold.

Alexandre took her on daily walks after they were married. They would wander through the forest where she'd first seen Jesse, but never anywhere near the spring, because Alexandre liked to stick strictly to the well-trodden paths that traced through the forest, rather than wandering in any direction as Winnie would have done on her own.

* * *

><p>The weather was warm and sunny. So Winnie wasn't entirely pleased when they entered the shade of the trees, the several degrees difference between sunshine and shade, weren't exactly an unpleasant difference, but she would have rathered to simply stay out in the sunshine, perhaps laying in the grass while it beat down on her.<p>

"Do you hear those birds?" Alexandre whispered, his grip on her hand tightening excitedly.

Winnie tried to smile pleasantly but it felt a little tight to her. "There's always birds in the forest." She responded managing to keep her tone agreeable.

Alexandre grinned at her like she was teasing him.

Suddenly a distinctly different cry than that of the birds' shattered the serenity of the forest. The cry set Winnie's instincts on alert. It sounded like a baby.

Alexandre tensed at her side. "Did you hear that?" He asked his tone carefully neutral.

Winnie nods. "We should go investigate. We could be the only people around for miles to help."

Alexandre shakes his head. "It could be dangerous. I'll go. You stay right here."

Before she can argue he has sprinted off into the trees.

Winnie's sighed. She didn't understand why men always thought they were so much more capable than women. She hated being treated second-rate. Not having much other choice, she plopped down in the middle of the dusty path and waited for her husband to return.

After that first shriek from the baby everything seems to have quieted down, back to the normal hum and chirp of the forest.

Her eyes close and she lets the peaceful quiet seep into her bones. This is probably the most relaxed she has been since she has gotten married. Not that there haven't been fun times with Alexandre, but the hard time for her, far outweigh the good. Most days she will find herself wishing that she never married him in the first place. But what's done is done. Her marriage and drinking from the spring. On some days she can see that she hasn't changed since that day. Jesse didn't lie. _Now if only he would come back._

A crash and clatter of leaves rustling caused her to open her eyes.

In Alexandre's arms is a bundle of tattered fabric. "It's a baby." He announced. "An abandoned baby."

Winnie rushed to her feet. She peeked at the bundle in her husband's arms. The baby was a girl. Small and angelic looking. She looked to her husband. "Are we keeping her then?"

"We can't abandon her knowing she alone in the world." Alexandre responded. "Besides, you're always complaining about having nothing to do during the day. Now you can take care of the baby to keep you busy."

"Deal." Winnie whispered happily, her attention returning to the baby. "Can I hold her?"

"Be my guest." He answered gruffly. "I don't know what to do with it."

A faint smile flickered across Winnie's face at these words. Almost haphazardly Alexandre passed the baby into Winnie's arms. The weight of the baby was heavier than she had expected, but not terribly so. It felt miraculous to be holding a baby. She'd never thought she'd have the opportunity.

The little girl looked at her with big blue eyes. "Hi baby." Winnie whispered softly. "What should we call her?"

Alexandre placed a hand in the small of Winnie's back, guiding her back along the path. "You can pick a name." He answered. "I've never cared much for such things. Besides it's not a boy. If it were a boy, then I would choose."

Winnie fought back an angry response. This was yet another example of why she hated the man's mentality, because nothing was important to them unless it involved another man. Instead she tried to focus on the baby in her arms. It didn't matter what Alexandre thought of her, Winie already felt that she loved the little girl. _But what to call you my dear? What to call you?_


	11. Burn

002. Burn.

"I guess I'm not so good at this cooking thing after all." Winnie forced a pain-filled laugh as Jesse ran water over her burn. The scent of the eggs she'd managed to crisp so terribly just before she'd accidentally splattered half of them over the back of her hand still hung in the air.

"You were raised in high society," He teased. "Of course you wouldn't be good at it."  
>Winnie glared at him, annoyed even though he had meant it as a joke. "I'd like to see you do any better, backwaters boy." She snapped.<p>

He grinned devilishly, pulling her hand from under the stream of water, and kissing it near the burn. "My pleasure."

She rolled her eyes at his cocky display. "Alright show me what you can do." She challenged.

"Gladly." Jesse announced and stepped over to the stove. "What was it you were making? Omelettes?"

She glared at his back. "I was just frying some eggs."  
>"Even more basic than I thought." Jesse teased.<p>

"Can smack you now? Or should I wait until you've started cooking, so you can get egg burned all over your skin as well?" She asked snappishly.

He turned to grin at her. "You know you love it when I tease." He prodded.

"My scowl would indicate otherwise." She responded offhandedly.

Jesse shrugged. "Two fried eggs coming right up."

She smacked the back of his head.


	12. Remember

009. Remember.

"Do you remember the day we met?" Winnie asks softly. They are lying in bed, the darkness like an extra blanket, trying to tuck them away into the lands of sleep. It's their first night together and Winnie can't stop thinking.

"Of course I remember." Jesse states, his tone smug and proud. "I would never such an important thing. You stealing into my life, even with all the waiting and sadness when I thought you were dead is the best thing that could have happened to me. It was through you, Winnie Foster but someday Tuck, that I learned to love. You were so young then, but when I begged you to drink from the spring I knew what we could be, what you might grow up to be."

Winnie smiles into the darkness. The words were beautiful. She wonders if he practiced them, hoping he'd be able to say them to her someday. "You changed my life Jesse. Before I knew you, I didn't really know what it was to live. I'd been hidden away from the world. It was mostly my parents doing, but I didn't try to fight it until you came along. In the end they still tried to choose for me, but they couldn't choose everything. So I drank from the spring. And now you're here."

"And now I'm here." Jesse agrees.

"It's almost like I don't need to remember anymore. I've got you beside me. So nothing that came before can ever be as great as that."

"That's _why_ I'm here." Jesse teases. "To improve your life."

"Thank you Jesse," She responds to his jest seriously.

Taking on her serious tone, he adds, "Thank you for drinking. I couldn't bear the thought of you dead. Thank you for drinking." His voice fades away and after a moment, Winnie can detect the deepness of his sleeping breath.

She continues to smile into the darkness, not ready to sleep, because reality feels so much better than her dreams.


	13. Flashbulb

023. Flash.

"Smile." Winnie called in a sing-song voice, and depressed the button.

The flash seemed almost to blister Jesse's eyes. Photos always seemed to shock his eyes. Everything progressed as the years went by and overall he was able to adjust to it easily enough, but for some reason, his eyes had never adjusted to the flash of a camera. _I guess some parts of me were simply designed for an earlier era._ He thought trying to blink the bright spots from his vision.

"Why are we doing this photo shoot?" Jesse asked a bit peevishly.

"Come on silly. Don't you want some reminder of all this time we've been able to spend together?"

"That's what my mind and memories are for." Jesse responded grumpily. "Besides you only ever seem to take pictures of me. When are we going to take some of you?"

"You said you had memories for that, silly." Winnie teased, but she walked over and handed him the camera. "If it means so much to you, take some of me now."

He sighed running his over the smooth texture of the device. "I guess it's not really a big deal. Should we take one together?"

"Great idea."

Jesse rolled his eyes a bit, but went along with it willingly enough. After all, he had forever with Winnie, sometimes she would be more interested in doing something and sometimes he would be, that's just the way life worked out.

Still holding the camera, Jesse held it out before him in that awkward way, arm outstretched, that people always did when they were trying to take pictures of themselves. He had always hated how these sorts of pictures came out, but with no one else around to take it there wasn't much that he could do but settle for this.

"Smile," He muttered and pressed the button.

The light on the camera flashed.


	14. Finding Forever at 17

047. Night.

Winnie lay awake, staring at her ceiling. She was seventeen today. She wondered why it didn't feel more different. She'd gone back to the spring today. She'd debated about drinking from it. In the end she'd decided to. Maybe she had only been a lonely little girl who needed a friend back when she was ten, and in that case drinking from the spring wouldn't do any harm, but if he was real, someday he would come back and some day she'd have someone forever.

She smiled at the thought. No matter what tonight felt like the beginning of forever.


	15. Gravity - Vienna Teng (Waiting)

029. Waiting.

_Hey love  
>Is that the name you're meant to have<br>For me to call_

Winnie dipped her hand in the water of the spring. It was cool, gentle. There was so much peace in the place. It didn't match the turmoil of her thoughts. Sometimes everything she'd experienced with the Tucks seemed just like a dream, a good dream that had brought her some happiness and freedom from the strictness she'd felt from everyday life, but a dream nonetheless.

"Were you real Jesse?" She whispered, dropping the water she'd scooped up back into the spring.

Sometimes she still wondered if she'd have the nerve to drink. She wanted so badly for the choice Jesse had offered her to actually be real. It would provide an escape from the tightening noose her life was becoming.

She'd be seventeen soon. She knew they'd been trying to hide it from her, but she'd her parents, hiding in corners, planning away at a marriage and life that Winnie simply didn't want.

_Jesse why haven't you come back?_ Winnie thought desperately, her hand dipping into the water to cup in her palm once more.

_Look love  
>They've given up believing<br>They've turned aside our stories of the gentle fall_

Winnie raced from the house sobbing. She'd known this was coming. She'd been able to sense it for quite some time now. Heavens, she'd even heard their whispers in the corners of the house about it. She just hadn't expected it to come today. It was her birthday! It was supposed to be a happy day!

She collapsed in the yard, her fingers clasping at the grass as she sobbed. She knew her mother would come to collect her soon. Alexandre was going to be arriving soon. They'd not only announced her impending doom of a marriage, but also that she was to be respectable and meet him today.

How she wished that the Tucks could turn up, to be something more than just a dream, she ran away to in the back of her mind.

_But don't you believe them  
>Don't you drink their poison too<br>These are the scars that words have carved  
>On me<em>

It was late and dark. All she could hear were the crickets and frogs. Winnie slipped from between her sheets. Maybe the Tucks were just a dream, but she had to rebel somehow. Even if Jesse never came. She could at least drink from the stream and pretend that he was coming back for her.

She crept stealthily from the house. Her feet raced swift and silent across the grass. Within moments she was slipping through the gate and racing towards the spring. She found her way easily even in the dark. It was a path she'd travelled so many times, she likely could have gone in her sleep as well. She stood for several long moments panting before the spring.

Hardly daring to hesitate any longer she threw herself to the ground, crouched before the spring, she cupped her hands and drank in great guzzling gulps.

Even if Jesse never appeared, if this was all just some crazy dream she'd imagined at the age of ten, she could pretend. For a few years at least she would have this thought of a magical spring, and could pretend that it would be the thing to redeem her.

_Hey love  
>That's the name we've long held back<br>From the core of truth_

Winnie stared in the mirror fascinated. It was so hard to tell for sure; it had only been a few years. But sometimes she could swear that her face hadn't aged a day. She wanted it to be true, but she didn't. Jesse still hadn't come back. She had been married for years now. He had promised to come back. Promised that they'd been seventeen together. He had to have realized she'd be at least seventeen by now. What was he waiting for?

_Unless I really did imagine him._ Winnie admitted to herself. _I was ten and lonely. It's just the sort of thing a child would do._

She turned away from the mirror. Anyways, what did it matter if she could live forever, if she couldn't even be with the boy that had promised it to her?

_So don't turn away now  
>I am turning in revolution<br>These are the scars that silence carved  
>On me<em>

Again she found herself staring at the face in the mirror. By now she knew that Jesse hadn't lied, about the powers of the spring at least. He still hadn't come back. But each day it was more apparent that though lines should be plastering her face now; there still wasn't the sign of a single wrinkle to mark her face.

"Jesse, why did you lie to me?" Winnie sobbed at her hopelessly young reflection.

She was getting tired of pretending to this town that she was something else. She was well-respected and they thought of her as a poor, lonely widow. But she was so tired of pretending, of making up her face with lines so she looked older.

_Maybe I could just pretend I'm dead._ Winnie thought with a strange sort of brightness. _Then I could stop pretending. Find somewhere else to live where nobody thinks I'm anything but the age my face looks to be._ The idea filled her with a strange sort of excitement, and a faint sense of hopefulness that she didn't want to examine too closely. She suspected her subconscious was dreaming of drawing Jesse Tuck to her.

_This the same place  
>No, not the same place<br>This is the same place, love  
>No, not the same place we've been before<em>

Winnie stared at the tombstone, hardly daring to believe she'd really done this. It was eerie to see her own name written in stone, but she'd done it. Now she could leave, no longer be bound to this place and find somewhere else. She could explore the world as she knew Jesse must have done.

She could see the Eiffel Tower.

She stared at the tombstone for a long time, barely managing not to cry at all the dreams she'd lost. There were still opportunities to be gained. But why hadn't Jesse ever come? Why hadn't he fulfilled his promise to her?

_Hey, love  
>I am a constant satellite<br>Of your blazing sun  
>My love<br>I obey your law of gravity  
>This is the fate you've carved on me<br>The law of gravity  
>This is the fate you've carved on me<em>

"Winnie, Winnie Foster, why didn't you wait?"

That voice...she wouldn't have thought a voice remembered from when she was ten could echo so clearly in her mind, that she could have remembered it so well.

She turned around and there he was. She nearly started to cry. Jesse had finally come for her. It had taken faking her own death for him to think of her again, but he had come for her!


	16. Linger

006. Linger.

Winnie grinned as Jesse entered the room. Jesse's hand rested next to hers on her round belly as he leaned over to kiss her.

"How are wife and baby doing today?" He asked as he pulled away.

"Excellent, I hardly even feel like I've been sitting in the exact same spot for a month." Bed rest was a beast, but for the sake of the baby, Winnie had been sticking faithfully to the doctor's orders.

"I'm glad to hear it and in a little less than another month we'll be able to hold baby and you'll be able to get out of bed, so everything's feeling very win-win to me right now."

Winnie's grinned widened and she levered herself upwards to peck at his lips. "Yes soon this belly will be gone and a beautiful little baby, part of each of us, will be in its place. It will be wonderful. I can't wait."

The conversation continued, a light playful banter, but Winnie's awareness of it decreased, replaced by the familiar feel of the bed that she shared with her husband, and the very strong feeling of not carrying a baby in her belly.

Winnie sighed keeping her eyes tightly closed. Dreams like this were quite rare, but she did her best to cling to them. There were times when she desperately missed the brief span of time that she'd been a mother, and sometimes she was filled with a deep regret that she would never know what it was to be pregnant with a child. It hurt to have dreams of children, but they were the closest she could get to the reality.

Desperately she rolled over, trying to call the dream back, to let herself linger in the realm where she could be pregnant and blessed with a child.


End file.
